GUELPH, Ontario, Nov. 19, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- Canadian Solar Inc.
(the "Company", or "Canadian Solar") (NASDAQ: CSIQ), one of the
world's largest solar power companies, today announced that its
wholly owned subsidiary, Recurrent Energy, one of North America's largest solar project
developers, closed on a tax equity investment commitment with GE
(NYSE: GE) unit GE Energy Financial Services for the 100 megawatt
(MWac) Astoria solar power project. Recurrent Energy also closed a
debt facility for the Astoria project, currently under construction
in California.
Recurrent Energy will be the managing member of the Astoria
solar power project and plans to own and operate the facility.
Santander Bank, N.A. (Santander) was the coordinating lead arranger
of a five member bank club including, NORD/LB, Rabobank, Key Bank,
and CIT Bank, which will provide project-level construction debt, a
letter of credit facility and a back-leveraged term loan facility,
totaling approximately $260
million.
"GE is a widely respected renewable energy investor and we are
proud to begin this partnership for the Astoria project," said Dr.
Shawn Qu, Chairman and Chief
Executive Officer of Canadian Solar. "It is also a privilege to
continue our work with this group of lenders as our team continues
a long history of successful solar development in Southern California."
"We are pleased to invest in our first solar project alongside
Recurrent Energy and Canadian Solar and to support a world class
solar project employing technology supplied by GE Power
Conversion," said Kevin Walsh,
managing director and head of renewable energy at GE Energy
Financial Services.
The Astoria project is GE Energy Financial Services' latest
renewable energy investment. The company committed over
$2 billion in nearly two gigawatts of
solar power projects worldwide and continues to invest $1 billion annually.
"The Astoria solar project, Santander's fourth financing of a
Recurrent Energy plant in the U.S. this year, is another milestone
in our fruitful cooperation to build renewable energy projects,"
said Jorge Camina, Head of Project
Finance at Santander Bank. "This is another example of our
commitment to support projects that are good for the environment
and create jobs to help stimulate the economy."
The Astoria solar power project, located in Kern County, is expected to reach commercial
operation in the fourth quarter of 2016 and will utilize 46 GE
1500V inverters. The project is expected to generate enough clean
solar energy to power approximately 33,250 homes. The electricity
and associated renewable energy credits (RECs) generated by the
facility will be sold under power purchase agreements. The Astoria
project is half of a two project portfolio. The Astoria 2 solar
project is expected to close financing before the end of the
year.
About GE
GE (NYSE: GE) is the world's Digital Industrial
Company, transforming industry with software-defined
machines and solutions that are connected, responsive and
predictive. GE is organized around a global exchange of
knowledge, the "GE Store," through which each business shares and
accesses the same technology, markets, structure and intellect.
Each invention further fuels innovation and application across our
industrial sectors. With people, services, technology and scale, GE
delivers better outcomes for customers by speaking the language of
industry. www.ge.com
About GE Energy Financial Services
GE Energy Financial Services-GE's energy investing
business-works as a builder, not just a banker, to help meet the
world's power and fuel needs. We offer more than
money-expertise-for essential, long-lived and capital-intensive
power, oil and gas infrastructure-GE's core business. Drawing on
GE's energy technical know-how, financial strength and risk
management, we see value where others don't and take on our
customers' toughest challenges with flexible equity and debt
transaction structures. Based in Stamford, Connecticut, GE Energy Financial
Services holds approximately $16
billion in assets.
More information: www.geenergyfinancialservices.com. Follow GE
Energy Financial Services on Twitter: @GEEnergyFinServ
About Santander Bank
Santander Bank, N.A. is one of the largest retail banks
in the United States by
deposits. Its main corporate offices are in Boston and it operates principally in
Connecticut, Delaware, Massachusetts, New
Hampshire, New Jersey,
New York, Pennsylvania and Rhode Island. Santander's 9,800 employees
serve its 2.1 million customers through more than 670 branches and
approximately 2,100 ATMs, call centers, website and mobile app.
Supervised by the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency and a
member of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, Santander in
the United States is a
wholly-owned, financially autonomous subsidiary of Banco Santander
(NYSE: SAN), a global commercial and retail bank. For more
information about Santander, visit www.santanderbank.com or call
877-768-2265.
About Recurrent Energy
Recurrent Energy, a subsidiary of Canadian Solar Inc., is
redefining what it means to be a mainstream clean energy company,
with utility-scale solar plants that provide competitive clean
electricity. The company has more than 4 GW of solar projects in
development in North America.
Additional details are available at: www.recurrentenergy.com
About Canadian Solar Inc.
Founded in 2001 in Canada,
Canadian Solar is one of the world's largest and foremost solar
power companies. As a leading manufacturer of solar photovoltaic
modules and a provider of solar energy solutions, Canadian Solar
has a geographically diversified pipeline of utility-scale power
projects. In the past 14 years, Canadian Solar has successfully
deployed over 12 GW of premium quality modules in over 70 countries
around the world. Furthermore, Canadian Solar is one of the most
bankable companies in the solar industry, having been publically
listed on NASDAQ since 2006. For additional information about the
company, follow Canadian Solar on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, or
on the website.
Safe Harbor/Forward-Looking Statements
Certain statements in this press release are forward-looking
statements that involve a number of risks and uncertainties that
could cause actual results to differ materially. These statements
are made under the "Safe Harbor" provisions of the U.S. Private
Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. In some cases, you can
identify forward-looking statements by such terms as "believes,"
"expects," "anticipates," "intends," "estimates," the negative of
these terms, or other comparable terminology. Factors that could
cause actual results to differ include the risks regarding general
business and economic conditions and the state of the solar
industry; governmental support for the deployment of solar power;
future available supplies of solar grade silicon; demand for solar
products by consumers and inventory levels of such products in the
supply chain; changes in demand from significant customers; changes
in demand in our project markets, including Canada, the
U.S., Japan and China; changes in customer order
patterns; capacity utilization; level of competition; pricing
pressure and declines in average selling price; delays in new
product introduction; continued success in technological
innovations and delivery of products with the features customers
demand; utility-scale project approval process delays;
utility-scale project construction delays; utility-scale project
cancelation due to failure to obtain all the necessary permits;
shortage in supply of materials or capacity requirements;
availability of financing; exchange rate fluctuations; trade
protectionism in Europe, the U.S. and India; litigation
and other risks as described in the
Company's SEC filings, including its annual report on
Form 20-F filed on April 28, 2014. Although the Company
believes that the expectations reflected in its forward looking
statements are reasonable, it cannot guarantee future results,
level of activity, performance, or achievements. Investors should
not place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements. All
information provided in this press release is as of today's date,
unless otherwise stated, and Canadian Solar undertakes no
duty to update such information, except as required under
applicable law.
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SOURCE Canadian Solar Inc.